Love Hurts
by Ageha Yume
Summary: Falling in love was never a smooth ride on an even and paved road. But despite this, Ryoma wanted to believe in Seiichi. But time and again, Seiichi kept proving to Ryoma that trust built over time can easily be shattered that easily. Falling in love was surprisingly easily, but falling out of love is really impossible and Ryoma had already sunken too deep now... [New version!]


_Happiness always seems to last for such a short time and misery seems to drag on endlessly._

Near the coast of a sandy shore, a seventeen year old teen walked along its edge as a sudden gust of wind here and there blew past him, causing him to lose his balance occassionally as well as making his hair go haywire. He was traveling slowly at an uneven pace, with one step moving slower than the previous one, but he continued this pattern with no designation in mind. His eyes were never watching where he was going toward and it was as if those golden orbs no longer can see light.

It was dark. So dark with no single tint of light. And he was all alone, enduring the whole ordeal by himself with no one reaching their hand out to him, telling him that everything will be fine.

In the process, he bumped into numerous people but as usual, he never mutter any words of apology as if he was mute. And in fact, despite not being a mute, his vocals were malfunctioning and no sound can get past his vocal box. However, inside his mind was the same gentle yet melodic voice going on repeat. And despite the softness of the voice, to him, the voice were like bullets, piercing his body repeatedly and his fragile body was reaching the point of being broken down into pieces that couldn't be put back together again. His mind was telling him to move forward, to go anywhere besides _there_. And together, both his heart and body want to escape. To run away.

Echizen Ryoma just wanted to disappear and if the world was indeed flat like people used to say back when science wasn't advance, Ryoma wished to fall down off of Earth. No one would care, not even himself. Right now, there was no meaning to his life and it doesn't matter if he was alive or dead.

Ryoma soon came to a pause and stared at two couples in front of him. His eyes portray various emotions: sadness, envy, jealousy, and... anger.

He wanted to be embrace by someone, to be cherish by someone once again. And yet, these moments would never surface again, forever buried deep inside. The only comfort he can possibly find would be in his dreams where everything was still picture perfect and nothing was destroyed... yet.

Ryoma once believed that those who merged dreams into reality are cowards who wants to escape reality, but now he was in the same position as those he once looked down upon. He finally realized just why people wanted to live in dream forever. In dreams, no one would reject you and in dreams, happiness revolves around you, leaving no room for negativity to sneak inside. Dreams are truly a paradise on Earth.

But at the same time, he felt envy and jealousy towards the couple because they had something while he doesn't. They are obviously madly in love as shown through their intimate physical contact, but in Ryoma's case, there was no one by his side who he can also act this way. Ryoma seeks someone's warmth around him, wants someone to hold him when he's lonely, and needs someone to tell him that he's their most important one. But all of that was shattered in merely few minutes. Every memories that Ryoma worked so hard to gather through the past years are all destroyed in that one single moment. It was then that he felt the world coming down upon him. It was then that he felt that this is... the end.

And lastly, anger. Ryoma had always thought that their feelings weren't something fickle that could be destroyed within minutes, but that train of thought was clearly wrong. Ryoma thought that Yukimura Seiichi is someone whom he can depend on for life, but it seems that he was wishing for something impossible.

During middle school, Ryoma wasn't interested in romantic love, putting his entire focus into tennis. All he think about was to win the Nationals with his teammates, and once that was accomplished, Ryoma set his focus toward a simple goal: to simply practice, practice, and practice. He was never satisfied with his tennis level; he wish to reach higher heights and with that said, the Nationals was really a beginning, the starting point. His goal was to defeat and surpass his father and with that goal not yet achieved, Ryoma could never take a breather and just enjoy life as a student.

But things started to change once Yukimura stopped him after a friendly match between Rikkaidai and Seigaku. With his interest slightly piqued, Ryoma decided to stay and see what the Child of God want from him. Few ideas registered in his brain: maybe Yukimura wanted a tennis match or he wanted to talk about their training regimes.

And it turns out that Yukimura wasn't there to discuss anything tennis related. In fact, he had surprised Ryoma by saying, "Boya, do you mind hanging out with me this weekend?"

Ryoma blinked, "Do you mean a tennis game? Then sure."

Yukimura chuckled and shake his head, "No, no. We're going to hang out and have fun."

"By having fun, you mean...?"

"Going shopping, eating, playing at arcades, hanging out in parks..." Yukimura listed things straight from the top of his head.

"Why would you want to do these things with me? Wouldn't your teammates be a better option?"

"Well, I just thought that hanging out with someone I usually don't interact with is a nice change of pace," he shrugged as that was the only excuse he could think of. Rumors had it that Echizen Ryoma is dense and oblivious towards things like romantic love, but Yukimura never know that he was this dense. It seems that there's so much about Ryoma that he didn't know despite him trying to get as much information about Ryoma as he can from Rikkaidai's data specialist.

"I see..." That was the start of their relationship and their first "official date". Coincidentally, on that weekend, Yukimura gathered his courage and confessed to Ryoma. At first, Ryoma rejected the bluenette, stating that he wasn't interested and that he didn't know if what he feels toward the bluenette is love.

Yukimrua understands and take a step back, giving Ryoma some space to think about things. He decides to court Ryoma and the two came to a compromise: if Ryoma rejects Yukimura again by the end of the week, then Yukimura would never bother him and would never bring this topic up again.

And with only exactly one week to make Ryoma change his mind, Yukimura decided to consult his best friend Fuji, also Seigaku's reknown tensai. Since Fuji is dating Tezuka, he had more experience in dating so it makes sense to seek his help.

With that mindset, he picked up his phone and dailed Fuji's number. "...Syusuke? It's me, Seiichi. I want to ask for some love advice."

 _"Ara, so Ryoma-kun decided to go on a date with you, right? Congratulations!"_

"Well, yeah. More or less. The thing is I have only a week to convince him to be in relationship with me and I'm struggling to come up with ideas. I want to be direct, but not direct at the same time, if that even makes sense..."

 _"No, I get you. You do want to make sure that your feelings are properly conveyed but you're afraid that you might be too pushy and cross the boundary."_

Yukimura nodded absentmindedly. That was exactly what he was troubled with.

 _"Alright, then listen carefully. You should..."_

Taking detailed notes of Fuji's lesson, Yukimura was ready to start courting Ryoma. And things did went well and he did sucessfully captured Ryoma's heart by the end of the week, of course, with Fuji's help, for which Yukimura was forever grateful for. This was the start of this love life and he couldn't wait to make various memories with Ryoma.

Things had gone rather smoothly for quite some time after the two started this relationship. They managed to keep in contact with one another despite living in different regions in Japan. At times, Ryoma would sleep at Yukimura's place and vice versa during the weekends, and during that time, they decided to have a friendly tennis match to waste time. Tennis was something the two both enjoyed, so naturally, tennis was also a part of their relationship. Indeed, there were times where the two couldn't see each other physically for a week or two due to school work and upcoming exams, but they tried to at least see each other via Facecam and other messenger apps.

But when they do meet, Yukimura would try to drag Ryoma to various places just to hang out with each other. He understands that they couldn't be together 24/7, so he tried to make some enjoyable memories so at least that way, they wouldn't feel lonely without the other by their side.

He dragged Ryoma to a nearby amusement park that was also a place popular amongst couples with various cafés with heart shaped seats and tables. There was also nice and relaxing attractions that lets couples enjoy themselves.

Yukimura smiled. He was glad that he chose this place but Ryoma on the other hand weren't quite comfortable hanging out in this place.

"Come, Ryoma. Let's go take some photos first," and so they entered a photo booth and take various pictures with their hands in different positions to form a heart. And lastly, in the center of this collage was a picture of them kissing. Ryoma was hesitant at first in doing this, but Yukimura finally convinced him and the two ended up taking a nice, romantic picture that both have a copy of. Yukimura decided to take this chance to take a picture of the actual copy using his smartphone and save it as his background picture and he also coerce Ryoma into doing the same.

The next stop was the rollercoaster ride, love themed. And this opportunity made Yukimura find out something new about his lover: Ryoma actually have a fear of heights, which was pretty cute in his opinion. Ryoma doesn't scream like other people with acrophobia, but he shut his eyes close and tried to calm his beating heart. The bluenette can see that he was trying to retain a calm composure but it was obvious that The Echizen Ryoma was terrified.

Yukimura held Ryoma's hand throughout the entire ride and let Ryoma squeeze it so hard that he couldn't feel his hand anymore. But it was worth it. And he'll gladly sacrifice his hand to see Ryoma so dependent on him.

Afterwards, once it was safe to assume that Ryoma wouldn't puke, they entered a café and ate something light that can be digested really quickly. Yukimura smiled the entire time, sipping his drink once in a while, watching his lover eat.

Ryoma looked up and said, "Stop watching me, it's creepy!"

Yukimura chuckled, "Alright, alright."

And just like that, time had passed and now Ryoma is a freshman in high school while his lover is a senior.

Ryoma thought that the wind will continue to blow in their favor, but he was wrong.

It happened during February 14, in other words, Valentine's day. Ryoma wasn't a female, so obviously, he wouldn't make chocolate and give it to his lover. Instead, he bought roses in a pot from the botanical garden along with few chocolates bought from a sweets shop since this is Valentine's day.

Ryoma trod carefully. He wouldn't want to accidentally drop his gift and ruin it. Plants are really delicate and you can easily take away its life and that was why it was "worth it to protect such fragile life", as Yukimura would say.

He entered Rikkaidai High School and immediately walked towards the all familiar tennis court, since he did visited this place a million times. Ryoma decided to lean on the fence while he wait for his lover to come out the locker room.

After some time had passed, he glanced at his watch and observed that at least 30 minutes had passed. He then scanned the courts once more and Yukimura was nowhere to be found. Just where was his lover? Ryoma decided to check the locker room, but no one was there except for a certain naked seaweed-head, which Ryoma definitely didn't want to see, and so he shut the door hastily.

As he was turning around, he heard Sanada's voice calling for his lover. Thinking that Yukimura was also there, Ryoma turned the corner and was about to call his lover's name, but the words died.

Yukimura was indeed there, but he was leaning against the wall with Sanada hovering over him. But what shocked Ryoma the most was that Sanada's lips was touching his lover's.

Without looking back, Ryoma ran and once he ran farther from Rikkaidai, he stopped to catch his breath. His eyes starts to sting and he swallowed a nonexistent lump in his throat. He gripped his hair tightly as his eyes dilated. His heart was pumping faster then usual and his breathing rate was uneven and fast paced. And during the entire time, Ryoma was extremely confused. Why would his lover cheat on him?! Was everything a lie?! Was their love a lie?!

His head was a mess; he couldn't think straight and finally decided to visit the ocean to at least calm himself.

And right now, slamming his head against a hard, solid rock sounds very tempting. Maybe it'll help him forget what he saw? Yeah, sounds absolutely nice.

* * *

 **I realized that I have been too inactive on FF for a while, so I'll try to change that this summer. And my first step will be starting with this story. I apologize that you guys need to wait for a month for the new version, but I'm bombard with tests, so I really couldn't find time for writing.**

 **Anyways, see you next time!**


End file.
